Guard for a hospital bed



GUARD FOR A HOSPITAL BED Filed Jan. 22, 1932 INVENTOR HELEN 5 N01? TH- 1 W 14 ATTO NEY 5 of canvas 24, it, of course, being understood that Patented Dec. 12, 1933' UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE 1 Claim.

This invention relates to a guard for a hospital bed.

In hospitals patients very often are irrational, or when coming out of an anaesthetic very often .fall out of bed unless prevented by some sort of a guard. Guards of various sorts for beds are old but an eflicient, practical guard for a hospital bed has never gone into practical use to the applicants knowledge. In hospital practice speed and efficiency are necessary and vital. A further important item is that of sanitation. Hence, a guard for a bed to be practical must not only be easily and quickly placed in operative position and quickly removable from operative position but must also be of such a nature that it can be readily laundered and sterilized. Since such a guard must necessarily be made from fabric, cloth, canvas, or some such material, it must also be arranged thatit can be drawn taut. Therefore it is an object of this invention to produce a guard for a bed that can be readily and efficiently placed in, and removed from, operative position; that is easily laundered and sterilized, and which can be easily drawn taut.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a perspective of a bed showing the guard in operative position.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through the bed.

Fig. 3 is a secton along the line 33 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a section along the line 44 of Fig. 3.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, there is shown a bed having a head post 1 and a foot post 2. Since the bed may be any of the I well known and conventional types used in hospitals, the same will not be described in detail. The portion of the bed comprising the spring will be generally designated 3 and the mattress 35.

The bed guard comprises an elongated strip any other suitable fabric or cloth material can be used. The strip 24 at each: end is turned back upon itself as at 5, and sewed transversely thereof as at 6 to produce a transverse loop '7.

.f The loop 7 is provided with a plurality of openings 8 through which project a plurality of eyes 9. Preferably the eyes 9 are formed upon a sin le piece of wire 29 such as shown which can be slipped lengthwise into the loop 7 and 1' then moved lengthwise of the strip 24 so that the eyes 9 project through the openings 8.

On one of the bed posts, which is here shown as the foot post 2 for descriptive purposes only, there is mounted a bracket 10 which is pro- 3 vided with an upright post 11. One of the loops 7 of the guard 24 is arranged to be threaded over the post 11 as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. In such a case the wire eye strip 29 is omitted from the loop 7. The other end of the guard 24 is secured to a suitable roll 12 which is provided with a plurality of hooks 33 which are adapted to interengage with the eyes 9. The roller 12 is carried on the shaft 13 which is journaled into the supporting brackets 14 and 15. The supporting bracket 15 is preferably removably secured to the head post 1 and comprises two parts which are held together by the headed bolts 16. The upper end of the shaft 13 is square as at 1'7 and adapted to receive a crank 18. The square end of the shaft 17 likewise has fixed thereto the ratchet 19 and the bracket 15 has mounted thereon a cooperating pawl 20 which is held in engaging position with the ratchet 19 by the spring 21. By turning the crank member 18 the guard 24 can be drawn as taut as the operator desires and necessary to prevent the patient from falling from the bed.

When the guard 24 is applied to the bed it is preferably positioned so that the lower edge 22 is somewhat below the upper surface 23 of the mattress 35 and preferably in contact with the side of the mattress and associated clothing as shown at 24, Fig 2. Thus, by turning the crank 18 the guard 24 can be drawn taut so that the weight of the patient against the guard 24 will not be sufiicient to create an opening between the guard 24 and the side of the mattress to permit the patient to fall through to the floor.

It will be noted that in the operation of the device all that is necessary is to provide either one of the loops 7 with the eye wire 29 as shown in Fig. 3, and engage the eyes with the hooks 13 on the roller 12. The other loop '7 at the other end of the guard 24 can then be threaded over the postll whereupon the turning of the crank L 18 draws the guard taut. When it is necessary to speedily remove the guard 24 the operator can very easily release the pawl 20, turn the crank in the reverse direction thereby loosening the guard 24 and permitting one end of the same to be removed from the post 11, or the roller 12 can be unwound sufficiently to permit the end of the guard to be unhooked from the roller 12. It will be noted that the operation of the device is so simple that it can beperformed by a single operator and practically one handed,

that the guard 24 is interchangeable in that either end is adapted to be mounted on either the post 11 or the roll 12 by virtue of the opening 8 in the loops '7 and the eye wire 29. Fursecured at one end to the other post of the bed and parallel therewith, an elongated strip of fabric having a looped end arranged to be threaded over the free end of the said rod and the other end of the fabric being secured to the said rotatable shaft whereby the said guard can be readily unrolled, threaded over the said rod and drawn taut by the said crank and held taut by the pawl and ratchet.

HELEN B. NORTH. 

